Microsoft is working on adding a more secure feature to the latest build of the Windows 10 Creators Update. The new feature which is called Dynamic Lock will automatically attempt to detect when the user is no longer in front of the PC, and will lock and secure the PC.
We were told that internally, the feature was referred to as Windows Goodbye, Which explains the whole idea of the feature. We are not exactly sure on how Microsoft will implement this, looking at how Microsoft will detect interactivity. This could be the upgraded version of "after 5 minutes of inactivity, lock my device" or a more robust feature like utilizing proximity sensors and more to detect when the user is no longer in front of the PC.
Microsoft is planning to deliver Dynamic Lock as part of the Windows 10 Creators Update, expected to arrive in April.


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New Zealand's swing, England's response: Lessons for India from Lord's
How Burns and Root countered Southee, Jamieson, Wagner
The Indian batsmen could learn from the likes of Rory Burns and Joe Root, both of whom showed great resistance against the seam and swing of the Kiwi pacers.
The threat that New Zealand pose for India going into the World Test Championship final was on display in the Lord's Test against England.
The New Zealand seam attack of Tim Southee, Kyle Jamieson, Neil Wagner and Colin de Grandhomme generated the second-most swing that any side has managed in England since 2006.
India may also want to look at how England opener Rory Burns and captain Joe Root attempted to tackle that movement.
Basically, Southee and Co outdid stalwarts James Anderson and Stuart Broad and the rest of the English attack in their own conditions. It was a potent display of what India will likely be up against next week in Southampton.
Now Southee is an acknowledged master of swing, especially away from the right-hander. But there was no release for England from the other end too, even in the absence of New Zealand's other swing exponent Trent Boult.
Jamieson has already made a mark since the impressive start to his career last year at home against India. His height (6'8") makes for a high point of release and can make even good length balls bounce more.
At Lord's, there was barely any seam movement, but Jamieson was able to get the most for any bowler on either side, introducing another variable for the England batsmen to counter.
As if that wasn't enough, Wagner went on to combine both seam and swing. The left-armer is known more for his stamina and ability to keep attacking batsmen with the short ball. But here he was at Lord's pitching it up, and luring even the in-form Burns to his fall in the England second innings with movement in the air and off the pitch.
Burns made 132 in the first innings, with no other England batsman making more than 42. According to CricViz, Burns' average interception point against pace was 2.03 metres from the stumps, the most in any of his Test innings of 30 balls or more. Further, Root's average interception point was 2.08 metres, the third-highest ever for the England skipper, who made 42 and 40 at Lord's.
Now, Burns does not have a big forward stride, and Root is arguably one of the finest back-foot players ever. But these two were willing to get out of their comfort zones and bat outside their crease in a bid to counter the movement New Zealand were generating.
Virat Kohli had done so as well on the 2018 England tour and combined with his largely disciplined leaving, it had brought him nearly 600 runs across the five Tests.
Burns' wagon wheel was also revealing of the approach of not going after bowlers in England and instead letting the bowlers come to you. Sixty-nine of Burns' 132 came in the 'V' square on the leg side, relatively easy pickings off the pads.
Remarkably, he scored just six runs in the classical 'V' down the ground, and none of them at all through mid-off, suggesting that he was restraining himself from pushing away from the body. It was commendable discipline from the England opener, and something India may want to emulate in the WTC final.
Written by: Abhishek Purohit
Featured Image: AFP/ David Gray

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


My second doctoral concert demonstrated the ensemble double bass in its fundamental role. Each composer represented on the program had created a personal combination of instruments, each giving the double bass slightly different tone role in the chamber ensemble. Beethoven boldly reformed the old serenade tradition to which Strauss - crystallized by Hasenöhrl - and Nielsen added the flavors of their eras.
As an important part of his profound music education Carl Nielsen played the violin for a long time with the Royal Danish Orchestra. In 1914 when Nielsen was already serving as an assistant conductor with the same orchestra, the principal double bassist, Ludvig Hegner commissioned a chamber work for mixed ensemble for a concert tour with Beethoven's Septet as the main work. As late as a week before the scheduled tour a friend who was visiting Nielsen saw posters of the upcoming tour concerts with the title Serenade. When the guest asked to see the composition the composer admitted that he himself did not yet know the piece. Despite its rapid genesis, Serenata in Vano (Useless serenade) beautifully presents Nielsen's splendid melodic imagination and instrumental understanding and yet follows the serenade tradition.
The story tells about a cheerful group of men who are serenading a lady in an effort to entice her to appear on her balcony. The first attempt (Allegro non troppo ma brioso) does not seem to have any effect and the lot decides to try a more romantic approach (Poco tranquillo é dolce). When the second version also draws a blank, the - still-light-hearted- group decides to stop the pointless pleading and marches (Tempo di marcia) back to the familiar pub.
Franz Hasenöhrl (1885-1970) was an Austrian composer and professor whose works are lesser known to audiences today. However, he might be remembered for some skillful arrangements of music by his more famous colleagues.
Richard Strauss's Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche Op.28 is a gigantic tone poem that pedantically follows the famous German tale. Strauss's characteristic orchestration is glamorous to the point that it nearly overshadows the musical substance. Hasenöhrl sensitively struck to that maybe just imaginary interface. He compressed the work to half of its original duration and the huge orchestral machine into a quintet, yet managed to retain the essential characteristics of the original composition. In substantially original roles are the clarinet as Till's jeering voice, and the famous opening motive's horn, whereas the violin, bassoon and double bass have to cover for the rest of the symphony orchestra. E.g. the double bass stands in for the snare drum at the moment of Till Eulenspiegel's decapitation.
In 1800 30-year-old Beethoven, newly settled in Vienna offered his publisher Hoffmeister a substantial pile of compositions: the First symphony, three piano concertos, six string quartets (Op. 18) and the Septet. The publisher later accepted the entire package, although the Septet had already then begun a life of its own.
The ambitious composer was not very modest, but vigorously and obviously very effectively established himself in music circles of his new hometown, both as a pianist and as a composer. He had an obvious urge to get out under the shadow of his mentor, Joseph Haydn.
Beethoven earned money by arranging concerts of his own compositions. His Septet was premiered at Vienna Burgtheater in 1800 led by the famous violin virtuoso Ignaz Schuppanzigh. Success was instant and continued to the point that the composer tired of it.
The work carries on the composition tradition of the 18th century with distinguishing Beethovenian characteristics. In effect the composer produced a hybrid of serenade and symphony. One could easily pick four movements from the six for a classic sonata/symphony form – the third movement optionally either a traditional minuet or a more modern scherzo. Between which, carefully placed to the golden section, the composer created a variation movement according to the serenade tradition, with the theme following a popular German song Ach Schiffer, liber Schiffer from the Rheinland region. As in the symphonic tradition, an exceptionally beautiful symmetry is created with the slow introductions to both the first and last movements.
The instrumentation of the Septet reaches also further from the traditional serenade, in which the winds had mainly been used in pairs. In Beethoven's hands every instrument represents its part alone. The combination of clarinet, bassoon and horn was carefully chosen; clarinet being relatively new instrument. The composer had emphasized to the publisher that the parts were tutti obligati – all absolutely indispensable-, reference to the tradition of varying the instrumentation in the serenades.
Beethoven gave the instruments new roles; the bassoon does not play the bass line, the cello frequently ascends into the tenor register, and the instrument combinations are used in new ways. The role of the double bass depends largely on the tradition in wind serenades and divertimentos where the string bass doubles the bass line. However, this time as the sole bass instrument the double bass has profoundly orchestral role.


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'We have a lot of respect for the manager' – left-back
Defender Mal Benning has described the positive impact that manager Nigel Clough has had on the Stags, and says that Mansfield must now start to turn their good performances, and draws, into victories.
The left-back has enjoyed a consistent run in the starting XI since the appointment of the former Derby County boss in November, starting ten of the last 11 matches in all competitions.
Benning, 27, says the players have 'a lot of respect' for the Stags' boss and that the players 'want to do well for him.'
"We haven't been good enough at picking up results and getting the wins this season," he told iFollow Stags. "But since the new gaffer [Nigel Clough] has come in, I think we've been performing very well, apart from the last game-and-a-half.
"We've been drawing too many games, so I think we need to pick up a few more wins now to try and climb up the table.
"It's a mentality that we've got to have as a group now to try and get that first home win and try and get a few wins on the bounce.
"It [Nigel Clough's appointment] has been a boost for the players. When he came in, we got a great result at Forest Green, and since then we've been putting in good performances.
"The players have a lot of respect for him so they want to do well for him. As players, we just need to keep performing well and hopefully pick up a few more results."
Following this week's news that Nottinghamshire would remain a Tier 3 area under government coronavirus restrictions, meaning Mansfield's home matches would continue to be played behind-closed-doors, Benning says that not having the 'amazing support' of a home crowd is a 'big miss.'
"It [no home fans] is a massive miss," he explained. "Playing in an empty stadium at home is a massive miss.
"If you do something well in a game and hear the Stags' fans behind you, it can boost you. I know that from being here so long – I know how good the fans are, home and away.
"The support is amazing, and I personally believe if they were in the stadium, I think some of those draws would have been wins."
The former Walsall defender also looked ahead to Stags' upcoming fixture at home to Southend United, which will take place at One Call Stadium at 3pm on Saturday.
"It's going to be like any other game in League Two – we all know we need a few more wins under our belt, but it is no different to any other game.
"We're in the position we're in because we haven't won enough games. The performances over the last month-and-a-half have been good.
"It's the performances that matter, because if you're playing well, the results will come in the end."
There was also a personal assessment from Benning on his season so far, and the defender also discussed his recent switch from wing-back to full-back.
"I feel like I've been steadily doing well but I feel like I can do more. Everyone knows that my main strength is attacking and I feel like I can get at that more.
"I had a couple of great seasons at wing-back, and the years before that, I was playing at left-back.
"I don't mind either – there's a lot more work involved at wing-back. Obviously my main threats are going forward, so either suits me."
iFollow Stags subscribers can watch Mal's interview in full by logging into mansfieldtown.net/ifollow.
Lapslie: 'We can't let it be comfortable for them'
Mansfield Town midfielder George Lapslie hopes the Stags can disrupt Sunderland by 'getting in their faces' when the two teams meet in the FA Cup first round on Saturday.
Boss sets sights on cup upset
Stags' manager Nigel Clough has called for his team to cause an upset against League One Sunderland when they head to The Stadium of Light this Saturday in the Emirates FA Cup first round.
Boss assesses Exeter loss
Manager Nigel Clough has delivered his post-match assessment following this afternoon's 2-1 defeat away at Exeter City.
Spirits lifted after positive display - forward
Mansfield Town forward Rhys Oates says the team's confidence has been lifted following their impressive 1-1 draw with Port Vale at One Call Stadium.


The Westwood home at 10517 Eastborne Ave., LA CA 90024 received a price reduction this week 4% or $50,000, down to $1,199,000. Listed 23 days ago on 3/22/11 for $1,249,000, this is the 1st price reduction of the current listing term. According to the MLS, the home is a 3 bedroom / 2.5 bath on a 6,500 sq ft lot. The backyard includes a large guesthouse, which may or may not be permitted.


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its been six months March 29, 2017 - 10 comments
IT'S BEEN SIX MONTHS (Part 15)
"Please do not hurt them. Someone will be at the described location with the money in an hour." Chief Brandon begged
" Chief we will be waiting; and i repeat: No police!" Capo warned as he dropped the call.
"Chief... i'll have the money arranged and marked as planned" The commissioner of police said
"I do not want the lives of my children put at risk. The kidnappers finally agreed on 50 million naira. We can do away with a few millions please " Mrs Brandon begged.
'The thing with kidnappers is that, if they aren't nabbed, they will do more harm in the nearest future. Madam be rest assured. we won't sabotage this trade. They'll be traced with the money they are paid with" he reassured.
"Okay Mr commissioner we await your instructions." Chief Brandon said
They all moved quickly out of the house. Chief Brandon and his wife accompanied Tobias's father to the hospital. Thankfully, he made it out of surgery. Tobias looked pale. Mrs Ayodele 's eye was swollen from crying so much "oh my Tob, i'm so sorry....thank God you are better now"
Tobias, was too weak to reply but he smiled. "Where's viv he muttered"
"One of the security guys are on the way to pay the ransom and get them back" his mother replied him
"And m..y.. baby?" he stammered
"Tobias, the baby is fine. She had a girl two days ago; the same day you had your surgery. They'll all be brought back home soon. You just came out of the Intensive care today please get some rest" His father patted his shoulder
"Let's go out and give him room to rest." Chief Brandon suggested
"Yes that's a good idea." Tobia's dad seconded
They all walked out of the room to the reception area
Capo and his guys surveyed the surroundings, once ascertained clear, they moved in and hastily made the exchange.
"Mr Dave, sorry for the inconvenience" the guard apologized as he took the baby from him
Dave assisted a wailing Viv into the car.
Upon arriving the house, Mrs Brandon removed her wrapper and laid it on the floor for her daughter to walk on. "My baby..." she lamented as Dave and Viv hugged her.
"I know who's behind this!" he spat
"Who? Tobias's dad asked fiercely"
"It's Ese!"
"Ese? how do you know that?" Viv was bewildered
"They brought in a lady on the night of Viv's delivery. She laughed heartily upon seeing us. The lady was wearing a particular top i really love on Ese; a red top. Same one she wore to viv's baby shower.
"Dave aren't you mistaken, why would Ese do that, what's her aim?" Viv asked
"She was the only one who knew you were at the house. I told her the moment you went into labor and they hijacked us a few minutes later. The kidnapper claimed Tobias wasn't the target before shooting him." Dave went further to explain
"We should thread carefully. A part of me insists there is a mix up somewhere" Viv said
"There isn't any mix up. I'm sure of what i saw. Moreover, the kidnappers made it clear, their sole aim was to get money. Ese seems like she needs money." he spat
"Chief Brandon beckoned on one of the guards. "Call the police we have a suspect. Where does she live Dave?"
"There's no need for that dad. She works with the firm. You can ask the police officers to pick her up at the office"
"Dave please think twice about this" Viv begged
"Dave, this Ese girl works in procurement right? Dave's father asked
'Yes sir...." Dave replied
"oh oh oh....i guess it's the same girl we delegated to run the oil and gas project" Chief Brandon snapped his fingers
"Exactly." Tobias's dad replied. "There may be some truth in what Dave has just said. That contract runs into billions; she probably wants her own share of the money." He continued
"I know what i saw, i am 100 percent sure it was her"
"You saw her top...allow the police do their investigation" viv begged again
"I think viv is right. Anyone could have that same top you saw" Tobias's mom differed
"She also made a sarcastic comment... some phrase i used in our last conversation just before the nab" Dave said
"There's no need debating this. She'll explain herself to the police"Chief barked.
"I'll be in my quarters. I want to be alone for a while..." Dave walked away from everyone. Giving Ese out was painfully difficult, but he won't allow anyone hurt his sister and niece in the manner they did.
Kunle rushed to Ade's office. "Have you heard? Ese was just arrested
"What, why? i saw the policemen, i just didn't think it was related to anyone i knew"
"I heard she masterminded Dave's kidnap" Kunle said
"Master minded what? how would they even think that" Ade raised her brows
"Dave insisted he saw the master mind come in with a red top. The same one Ese wore to his sister's baby shower."
"How did you hear all these?" Ade asked
I overheard the boss's conversation with the police at the lobby" Kunle replied
Ade became mute
"Ade!" Kunle called out. Wondering why Ade had suddenly gone mute
"Yes.. yes... oh my Lord, but anyone could have the same top you know..."
"He also said, Ese mentioned something that gave her away. She made a statement that was peculiar to both of them"
Ade looked away... she had used the 'babe and love you' phrase!damn it. She wasn't thinking. Those had slipped out of her mouth in the heat of jealousy. Now Ese was in trouble.
Why was she even worried? whatever...that's the ill luck she gets for being in the spotlight
"Are you even here at all?" Kunle asked
"Yea.. i'm here. let's go check on her at the station later today" she replied
Ese turned to see Dave staring deviously at her in the police van... "Dave i don't know what's going on" she whispered
"I do! you masterminded our kidnap. I saw you, i recognized your outfit"
"Me? what outfit? My God! how would you even think of that? i..i.. don..t even know what you are talking about" she stuttered
"Go and explain to the police... i hate you!" he spat as he walked away
Ese wept bitterly. "i have ill luck.. i really do" she said to herself as the police van drove off..
to be continued......
Mona 29 March 2017 at 16:15
beccca ooooooooo
Gold 29 March 2017 at 16:18
oh my world. My Ese is getting hurt for what she doesnt know a thing about
Charitee 29 March 2017 at 17:28
No no no... Becky please don't fail us. Bring the next part tmrw pls
Remigold 29 March 2017 at 18:27
Ese ooooo
Mrs Adaobi Okoronkwo 29 March 2017 at 18:29
I pray Ade owns up to the evil she's committed. I'm feeling bad for Ese. Becky you are officially the queen of suspense
Bose 29 March 2017 at 18:33
Becky if I come here tomorrow and I nor see part 16 i go find you beat you.
Chinenye 29 March 2017 at 19:45
Becky is becoming annoying. You'll drop a series, keep us in suspense and not update it. Very annoying somebody. Mtchw. I'm in my house come and beat me rubbish
Finewine 29 March 2017 at 19:51
What kind of indomie love is this one... Just like that? If tables were turned, I'm pretty sure Ese would never treat him this bad. Becky respect yourself and post the next part tomorrow thank you!
Sharon Purple Ilamah 29 March 2017 at 20:50
Officially a sad night...
Sumwen 29 March 2017 at 22:10
I'll just wait till madam post the last part. I can't die of heartache. See me acting a movie in my head over this your script.


On Thursday, February 21, 2019, AFCEA Quantico-Potomac will host a luncheon at The Clubs at Quantico. The Guest Speaker will be Col Douglas Lemott USMC. Col Lemott is the Commanding Officer< Marine Corps Cyberspace Operations Group.
Colonel Lemott Jr. is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy and was commissioned in 1995.
After completing The Basic School and Communications and Information Systems Officer Course in December 1996, he was assigned to Marine Wing Communications Squadron 28 and served as a Single Channel and Multi-Channel Radio Platoon Commander.
completed his utilization tour at Marine Corps Tactical Systems Support Activity where he served as a Branch Head and Program Manager.
In September 2007, he transitioned to serve as the Communications Officer for 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit and deployed to support Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was then selected to attend Marine Corps Command and Staff College and upon graduation was assigned to III Marine Expeditionary Force as the G-6 Operations Officer. During this tour he was assigned as an Individual Augment to serve as an Operational Planner for United States Forces – Iraq and led the establishment of an inter-agency planning team to facilitate and assist the Department of State in assuming the enduring mission in Iraq from the Department of Defense. While assigned to III Marine Expeditionary Force, he was selected to command Support Battalion, Recruit Training Regiment, Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina. After a successful command tour, he attended the National War College and earned a Master of Science Degree in National Security Strategy in 2014.
the Department's $40 billion Information Technology investment portfolio to include: Information Enterprise, Cybersecurity, Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Information Infrastructure Capabilities, and Resources and Analysis.
In June 2018, he took command of Marine Corps Cyberspace Operations Group, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Cyberspace Command, which has the mission of conducting Marine Corps Department of Defense Information Network Operations and Marine Corps Defensive Cyberspace Operations in order to enhance freedom of action across warfighting domains, while denying the efforts of adversaries to degrade or disrupt this advantage through cyberspace.
His personal Decorations and Awards include the following: Defense Superior Service Medal, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal (with Two Gold Stars), Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal (with Gold Star), and the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal.


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Cullbergstipendiet instiftades av Sveriges regering i samband med koreografen och dansaren Birgit Cullbergs 90-årsdag 1998. Stipendiet skall ges till en svensk koreograf. Stipendiebeloppet är 100 000 kronor. Det delas ut av Konstnärsnämnden.

Pristagare
 1999 Lena Josefsson
 2000 Pär Isberg
 2001 Birgitta Egerbladh
 2002 Örjan Andersson
 2003 Kenneth Kvarnström
 2004 Jens Östberg
 2005 Anna Vnuk
 2006 Johan Inger
 2007 Gunilla Heilborn
 2008 Dorte Olesen
 2009 Björn Säfsten
 2010 Christer Lundahl och Martina Seitl
 2011 Jeanette Langert
 2012 Jefta van Dinther
 2013 Malin Elgán
 2014 Zerjon Abebe
 2015 Alexander Ekman
 2016 Alma Söderberg
 2017 Martin Forsberg
 2018 QUARTO - Leandro Zappala & Anna af Sillén de Mesquita
2019 Rachel Tess
2020 Dinis Machado
2021 Nicole Neidert

Källor

Noter

Priser och utmärkelser instiftade 1998
Priser

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Lee Boulton
Head of Safety, NATS Swanwick
Integrating helicopters safely in London's busiest airspace
All kinds of aircraft travel through UK airspace – from huge commercial planes to small helicopters – all of which have to be carefully integrated and managed. This is particularly true of the busy skies over London, which has a skyline that continues to grow outwards and upwards.
Lee has worked for NATS for 27 years. He started his career in NATS as an en-route air traffic controller at the London Air traffic Control Centre.
Lee lead the development and delivery of UK en-route airspace change projects for 10 years and subsequently moved into non-operational management positions, including leading the team responsible of operational Air Traffic Control procedures at Swanwick – NATS' air traffic control centre in Hampshire.
Currently Head of Safety at Swanwick, Lee has responsibility for safety assurance and operational safety investigations at the Swanwick Centre, which handles nearly 2 million flights per year through UK airspace.


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Equitise and Australasia's First SingularityU Conference
Uesi Unasa, Equitise's Investment Associate, attended Australasia's inaugural Singularity University Conference held at the Hornscastle Arena in Christchurch from the 14th -16th of November. This was part of Equitise's ongoing initiative to be involved in providing market-leading technology to our companies and investors.
The Singularity University summit is a gathering of some of the world's leading minds to speak on the exponential innovations occurring in the technology industry and the impact that it will have on the future of New Zealand and Australia. The speakers were wide-ranging, from ground-breaking technologists in the field of self-driving cars and digital biology to speakers operating in traditional fields such as education. Key members from the field of Policy and Government also spoke about the implications that these advancements would have on New Zealand's regulatory environment in a world utilising Artificial Intelligence.
Equally as impressive were the technologies that were on display outside the arena, including Baxter the AI robot and ThoughtWired who were showing off a mind controlled toy car. The demonstrations served to reveal that the gap between sci-fi movie and real-world technology is not as far apart as many assume. Kaila Colbin, NZ Ambassador for Singularity University, drove this point home with the conference's opening talk on exponential technologies and what the implications of Moore's Law might look like to New Zealand in 5, 10 and 20 years.
In what was perhaps the most well-received speech on the first day, the audience was challenged to reassess the industry in which they operated. David Roberts, HaloDrop and 1Qbit Chairman, gave a talk on the history of disruption, paying close attention to the history of the spice trade.
In his analysis, Roberts revealed one of the biggest drivers of the purchase of spices was the myth that spices preserve food. At first, this appeared absurd to the audience, but Roberts went on to describe the man who disrupted the entire spice industry - Frederick Tudor. The talk covered Tudor's entrepreneurial endeavours of transporting Boston ice around the world in insulated ships, amassing a fortune at the expense of global spice traders. Continuing with this trend, the talk moved from Tudor's enterprise to the disruptive icebox and eventually moved to the modern-day fridge. Technology had rendered the spice trade a shell of what it once was.
So what could displace the modern-day fridge? Genetic modification and effective drone delivery are two potentially disruptive technologies in this space. These are already being developed by thought leaders around the world.
Robert's talk was a microcosm of the Singularity University conference and implored the audience to revisit the assumptions that we make in our everyday lives. Equitise is eager to apply these philosophies to the capital raising process and hopes to partner with innovative companies who are on the same journey in their respective fields.
Overall, SingularityU was a great event to be a part of – watch this space for more commentary on the Singularity University conference in the next series of blogs.


UFO Sighting in Long Beach, California on 2018-01-03 18:00:00 - Hoverin while communication with me i walked outside and looked up. abducted returned then bright light then flashed again over 500 ft with boom and rumble and then they don't. talking to me.
For several years ive had unexplained things happing to me. from abductions to telepathic communications of some type with others that sound human. interactive miterials with those "others". closing my eyes and seeing as clearly if my eyes were open but whats i was seeing was some where else with other "ppl" with intention of accomplishing a goal unkonw to me and grey aliens looking in windows knocking on them to get my attention and them using the telepathy or something telling me to chill out and alot of other things.And alot more experienced with them. for several yrs ive wondered about the pops/booms,voices, rumbles and light flashes and how they do what they do. abduction /visitation again tonight jan 3 2018 i walked out in the back yard and. was abducted/visited i looked up a large orb or ship like object was hovering over my home a less than 100 ft it interacted with me using a human voice. showed me other people/enties and i felt like they wanted me to socialize i refused (this happened alot but the first time i've seen thier craft or what have you this close) and was returned to my door step looking in the same direction with the object still at the same altitude .It flashed a bright light i heard a boom or pop. then i looking up in the same direction it was at an altitude of 500 ft plus.For several years they've been harrassing me and worse. i'm sure that the orbs that piolots see ect have a purpose of spying on humans . and with what theyve been doing i have developed the assumption that they have been finding humans with certain characteristics taking that what they like to developed a personality for aliens who look human and can provide a vibe that a human would respect. i've see greys up close and the use our brains against us. making us feel what they want us to. and that purpose it to know where our minds are i.E. scared defensive inspired ect. to use the unused part of our minds. ive been abducted multiply times. tonight i'm sure that whats been happing is alien.


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SitePoint
SitePoint Podcast #188: The Art of Explanation with Lee LeFever
By Karn Broad
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Episode 188 of The SitePoint Podcast is now available! This week Patrick O'Keefe (@ifroggy) interviews Lee LeFever (@leelefever) from Common Craft about how their explaining videos came about, the community around Common Craft, his book The Art Of Explanation and more!
You can download this episode as a standalone MP3 file. Here's the link:
SitePoint Podcast #188: The Art of Explanation with Lee LeFever (MP3, 54:54, 52.7MB)
Patrick and Lee talk about the place for creativity in explaining many things and how explanation (or sometimes the lack of it) can impact in so many areas of creativity and client relationships.
Browse the full list of links referenced in the show at http://delicious.com/sitepointpodcast/188.
Patrick: Hello and welcome to the SitePoint Podcast. This is Patrick O'Keefe and I'm doing an interview show today with my friend Lee LeFever. Lee is the founder and Chief Explainer at Common Craft, and he's the author of a new book, The Art of Explanation: Making Your Ideas, Products, and Services Easier to Understand.
According to the Common Craft website they are on a mission, they want to make the world a more understandable place to live and work by helping professionals like you possibly become explanation specialists because more specialists mean better explanations. And that's a good thing. Common Craft is married couple Lee and Sachi LeFever with Tom Bosco serving as a mascot.
I've known Lee for a while and it's great to have him on the show. Lee, welcome to the SitePoint Podcast.
Lee: It's great to be here Patrick, thanks.
Patrick: My pleasure. I want to talk about a few different areas of your life and your business, Common Craft, and a little bit on online community and of course explanation. So first the business, Common Craft. I mentioned how Common Craft is just you and Sachi, and for the record, on the cover of the book, is that you and Sachi to the right?
Lee: Yeah, that is an image that has been with us for a few years. I re-did it for the book but it is meant to be me and Sachi.
Patrick: Okay, now who's that other third guy, is he like a creepy guy who follows you around pointing at his head, or who is that person?
Lee: Just a little more Common Craft art.
Patrick: Awesome, so one of the cool things about Common Craft, and there's a number of cool things about Common Craft, but you've spoken about how important lifestyle is as a priority for you as a business. Specifically being small and happy. To me, Common Craft is at least to some extent a lifestyle business. You're successful but you never want to be successful at the cost of sacrificing your independent lifestyle.
That sometimes can be hard for some people to understand, because they think that you should always want to be bigger, bigger, bigger. But bigger can come with a cost, and it's been interesting to watch Common Craft grow while also seeing you negotiate that cost and maintain your mission. I wanted to ask you to speak a little bit about that negotiation with the cost of sacrificing that lifestyle but also growing and how you've been able to accomplish your goals.
Lee: Yeah, definitely, that's a great question. Common Craft started in 2003 with me being an independent consultant and then when Sachi joined in 2007 we became a two-person company and that's when we started making the videos for which we're known now. From the very beginning of that whole transition into videos we saw some opportunities to be a sort of home-based business of two people. After doing that for a little while we realized that because we have made this choice to be small and to be home-based, our happiness matters a lot.
If we're not happy, if work is not making us happy, then that means that our whole life is not happy. So we started to think about how could we build a business like Common Craft that would pay the bills and help us earn a good living but also make sure that we're happy and love our work and feel good about what we're doing. The more we looked at that we thought about how we could build a studio and have employees, but it just wasn't something that we felt like fit with what we wanted on a personal level.
We're sort of fiercely independent in that way. We want to be the masters of our domain I think. While there might be a lot of opportunity to make a lot more videos and to grow a business, I think that the way that you put it in the introduction is that does have a cost. It may mean that Common Craft is not going to be a $20 million company in five years, but it means that we'll be happy I think if we choose to stay small.
But what's missing about that is that if you're a small business that chooses to stay small, then usually that comes with real factors in terms of what kind of business you can really be in. We used to make custom videos and that was a business that made good money for us but it wasn't scalable. There was no what to make more custom videos without hiring people. That constraint helped us see the opportunity to start licensing videos.
That was a model that we could make our own videos and manage the whole process of making and licensing the videos and scale to thousands and thousands of people given the right opportunities. So I think our size helped us see these opportunities that I think have helped us be successful over the last couple of years.
Patrick: So between you and Sachi, how are your roles divided?
Lee: I think that Sachi and I are really different people, and I think that comes through in our work. Sachi is very detail-oriented and really great at analytical strategic kinds of things. I'm much more big picture, idea-
creative kind of person.
Patrick: Got it.
Lee: And that's really how it happens in Common Craft, I set the creative direction and get started on new videos and blog posts and things, and she's the one that really shapes it into something that's ready for prime time.
Patrick: And you draw the art, right?
Lee: Yeah, I do.
Patrick: And you're the voice. But I think what you're kind of alluding to is that Sachi does a lot of those behind-the-scenes things. I think I either heard you say in the interview that you did with Chris Brogan, or mention it in the book that she is behind the scenes by choice.
Lee: That's true. She wants me to be the face of the company; she doesn't have an interest in being that public face of the company. But I always want people to know that just because she's not the face of the company doesn't mean that she's not responsible for everything she… People might underestimate the amount of value and everyday good things that come from Sachi. She's behind some of our best ideas and it's a real team thing. It's certainly not just me, even though it might appear that way.
Patrick: Right, and that's the same for a lot of different businesses, whoever's out front tends to be associated with the brand, but to make that happen there's always people behind the scenes doing a lot of the work. Another interesting thing about Common Craft to me has been the revenue models over the years and how you've experimented with them. You mentioned this a moment ago about custom videos. You know that's kind of how you started with the custom client videos and as you described you found it wasn't scalable.
Not without adding people or adding overhead, which you wanted to avoid. I'm not going to have the precise timeline here, but I know that you stepped back from that and focused on video licensing. You didn't really do custom videos for a while. Then I think you did a few more, and then you launched your subscription model, which itself has matured over time. I love how you've experimented with the different business models and how you've tried new things.
For me, that's where it is, that's the only way you find out what the limits are and what you can make and what's best for you is to experiment. Then of course you have the Explainer Network. I'd like to walk through that a little bit. You mentioned the custom videos, and then you moved more to licensing videos. What led to that focus?
Lee: We've always made videos that are our own videos. The first videos we became known for were RSS in Plain English and Wikis in Plain English. Those videos weren't about products, they were about these ideas. We continued to build a library of videos that were like that without really a big business model in mind. But what started to happen pretty quickly was teachers and trainers and librarians were saying hey, can I use this for my work?
We started to think wow, maybe there's a business here, maybe there's a model here where we can give these teachers, trainers and librarians a better version of the video or tools for making the video more useful and relevant to them that they can't get anywhere else and that will allow us to make money in that way. Originally we had an ala carte sort of iTunes model where you put in a credit card, pay 20 bucks, download a video file, then you could use it for training.
That eventually, about a year ago, morphed into a membership service where you become a member of Common Craft and then have access to our library of 50 videos that you can embed and download at any time. It's always-on access to our library.
Patrick: I was just looking at the membership in preparation for this interview. I already knew about it obviously, but just updating myself on what you've made available now and what you're pricing was. It's very affordable for people to access the videos and be able to embed them. For the whole library it's only $159 a year, which is $12 a month or something like that?
Lee: It's not too much.
Patrick: It's a really small figure for the quality programming. Then you just recently started the DIY explainer thing, which I want to talk about which is licensing your artwork to people to use in presentations and to use in their own explanations.
Lee: That's right.
Patrick: You mentioned in the interview you did with Chris Brogan capitalizing on the wave of people who, to put it in a flattering way, who want to be like you. It's like be like Mike, except it's Common Craft. I think that was a really interesting move. What did you see that made you say okay, we're not just going to give the videos we want to give people access to our library of art work that we've drawn ourselves and use in our work?
Lee: Sure. I think that a lot of our decisions in the direction that Common Craft takes comes from the feedback that we're getting from fans and users and customers out there. Making our cutouts available, which are digital images just like the ones in our videos, came from seeing a number of people contact us and say is there anyway you can provide images? I'm looking for something like Common Craft artwork that's going to make my presentation or explanation remarkable.
Another thing we've been seeing, which I think is really something we're excited about is teachers are doing projects with students that use a video camera and paper cutouts in what they call Common Craft-style videos. If you go on YouTube and type in Common Craft Style, you'll see literally hundreds of videos that students have done on biology or history or whatever it is. Those same teachers have come to us and said hey, if you can provide anything at all that would help this process, then it's something that I think people would love.
So we see it being teachers, trainers or anybody that's just looking for honestly an alternative to stock photography and clip art. People put that stuff in presentations every day, and I think that Common Craft artwork has happened to evolve into its own sort of brand of visuals. I think we have a lot of potential to make it a more useful thing for people.
Patrick: Yeah and I just went to YouTube and typed in the phrase Common Craft Style and there's 1,150 results that come up. A lot of students as you mentioned, Common Craft-style Hunger Games, Common Craft-style Adam's Onus Treaty, Common Craft-style election of 1824. I can share a similar feeling with the people who take certain things from my book and then use it on their communities, but that has to make you feel a certain way, it's extremely touching.
I don't even know what the question is, but it has to mean a lot to you to see that taking to your style of artwork and then associating it with you and giving you credit and saying that we want to be like that.
Lee: Yeah. I think that we both feel honored by it. There's a difference between teachers and students doing it in the classroom and some marketing company somewhere selling it to their client. We love the idea of students and teachers being inspired by Common Craft. We love the idea of advertising agencies being inspired, but I think we have a lot better feelings about the students and teachers.
I think the students and teachers are much more likely to say that they were inspired by Common Craft and maybe give us some credit for that inspiration, but that doesn't always happen.
Patrick: I know what you mean. Speaking to that, is there a limitation to DIY explainer stuff and what people can do with the artwork?
Lee: Yeah. Our biggest one is no re-selling. You can't become a member, download the images and then repackage them and sell them in some other way. That could even mean doing client work as a video producer.
Patrick: That's what I was curious about.
Lee: Yeah.
Patrick: Which makes sense. Because it's only $49 a year, like what type of person are you that's going to do that and then sell it as an explainer video to your clients?
Lee: Yeah, it's true. But there is an exception there where if there is a company that has identified Common Craft-style as they want to make a video in that style, they can become a member and make a video on their own for their product. They just can't offer that as a service to others. So that's one take on it.
Another take is that if a video producer has a client that's saying I want to do Common Craft-style, then that video producer can work on that video, but their client has to purchase licensing from us. So each client has to be a Common Craft customer in order to be able to do that video. Then there's pricing things we have to work out around that, but that's sort of the basic idea right now.
Patrick: Makes sense. I thought this was really smart. Also, it's really smart to do the Explainer Network when you have this need to stay small, but then you have people who want videos. You just don't have time because it's only two people, there's only so much time in the day, so you identified people who do work at the level of quality that you can recommend and then they pay to be in this network of explainers that you then refer to potential clients.
Lee: Yeah. That came out of a very fortunate set of circumstances. When we first started making videos, we made a couple of high-profile videos by 2007. One was Google Docs in Plain English which was seen millions of times and it created a lot of demand for what we do. And even if we grew some it would still be hard to service that demand. We started thinking, if there's this demand we have to find a supply. That was where the Explainer Network came from.
It's been around for over four years now. It really was just a place to try to find a supply for people who were looking for this kind of video. To our surprise, it works. We just added three new members recently who are currently testing it out, but I have faith that they will hang around. We have our first member from Latin America, which I think is interesting who does a lot of work in Spanish.
Patrick: Very cool. Do you still do any custom videos? If someone comes to you and wants the full Common Craft, legitimate, here's a pile of money, we want you. Do you still do those videos?
Lee: I think that it's a possibility, but it's not something that we've done in a long time. We do do custom videos and we're working on something right now for instance, but it's because of a very special relationship. Since 2008-2009, we've had a relationship with Intel, and specifically Intel HR. They need explanations of what's going on with their stock program, and what their high-deductible health program and all these things.
That is sort of our big customer client that we work with a lot. That allows us to do that business while at the same time having the public face of Common Craft be our membership.
Patrick: Okay. Competition, you started something here, I don't even know if there was someone out there who was doing this before you in a similar way, I just see a lot of companies that came after. I wonder if these companies owe their lives to you. I wonder how you view competition in this explainer space, which from my outside perspective is growing and is very popular and hot right now. There's a lot of people who want to be in this space and want to make explainer videos. What is your perspective of competition as a whole and this emerging? Do you call it an industry?
Lee: I do. Maybe say like a cottage industry. It's not a big thing, but I do agree that it's growing, there's a lot more of an emphasis on explanation and on explainer videos. There's a lot of companies out there who I think are slapping the label explainer video on videos that are really just marketing. So there's that side of it where being the person that wrote a book about explanation I have strong ideas about what an explanation is and isn't and I don't want it to get co-opted by sales people too much.
Explanation certainly has a role in sales, but I worry that we might get away from the actual goal, which is to make something easy to understand. But that's not really an answer to your question. In terms of competition, my personal view is that I want to see the industry be successful. I want there to be more explainers. I'm very serious when I say I want the world to be a more understandable place. To get there we need more explainers.
I don't look at these video producers that are making explanation videos as competition to Common Craft necessarily. I maybe look at them as competition to members of our Explainer Network, but that's not my thing to worry about, that's their thing.
Patrick: They're your children.
Lee: Yes.
Patrick: You don't have to agree with me.
Lee: I don't know if I'd put it in quite those terms, but I think that when we first started making the videos I read a book called Blue Ocean Strategy that's a pretty well-known business book these days. I still look at Common Craft as a company who is driven, who's always looking for that next blue ocean. I was doing online community consulting before doing the videos, and the videos came from that. The videos were our blue ocean because that was right before everybody became a social media consultant.
Then we started making videos and now there's a lot of explainers out there. We're not competing directly with them, that's become a red ocean. Now our blue ocean is helping people be better communicators. Sure, that's a red ocean in some ways too, but we have our own way of doing that and our own brand of visuals and know-how and library of videos that I think is unique. I don't know of any other company right now that's doing that specific thing. That's kind of from a higher level how we look at how we've evolved.
Patrick: I knew you from the online community days and you mentioned the idea of marketers, nothing against them, but co-opting the idea of explanation when it's really just a marketing promotional video. Even though you're not as hyper into online community space as you used to be, I'm sure you can see that happening with online community also because I know I do.
Lee: Yeah, sure.
Patrick: This kind of thing where social media marketing is being called online community and it's kind of getting into that same kind of realm. So I can relate to you on that level. One other question I want to ask you about business before we move on to something else. You kind of touched on this, but this is something I'm seeing and the wave of cheap explanation videos, okay? I'm very pro-market, capitalism and all that stuff. I like money, I believe in making it. I believe in offering good service and getting paid as much as you can while sustaining the market.
But it just seems like more and more there's a lot of these cheap, cookie cutter explanation video things coming along. There's someone I know who's an acquaintance of mine who has this service and he's moving in and I just look at him like you, how dare you. Don't do that. That's not good; just send people over to Common Craft. Is this a trend you're seeing too?
You mentioned people putting out explainer videos that are not really in your view explanations, is this a trend that you see a lot as well as kind of cheapening the videos and these companies and services that are pumping out a lot of cheap, repetitive explanation videos?
Lee: You know I kind of see both sides. I think that there's a lot of talent, hard work and effort that goes into really great video and video production. That's something that people will always pay for is high-
quality work. I think that's a reason our members at the Explainer Network have been successful is they do great work and they are craftsmen and artists and really care about it. But at the same time there are huge numbers of people who are struggling with ways to get their message heard or their ideas understood.
They can't afford to hire a high-end video explanation company. They realize that PowerPoint is just not doing the trick anymore. I think those people are starting to look at what else is out there. There are a number of products that are trying to get the same outcomes that we always depended on PowerPoint for, but doing it in a different way. An example is a start-up out of Israel, I believe, called PalTunes. They're aiming for the PowerPoint market by giving professionals with mainstream computer skills the ability to make their own animated video.
Whether it's an explanation or not, it's a platform for communicating. I think that's a good thing. I think that having a variety of tools and a variety of platforms for getting a message out there that's remarkable and unique and engaging is good. But there's also a difference between platforms and skills. I think that's a big reason why we wrote the book is because the best platform in the world is not going to make you a good explainer. It actually takes understanding what an explanation is.
That's where we see fitting into that world. Yes, there's an explosion of tools that help you communicate, that's great, but what about how you communicate? The tools are only part of the equation.
Patrick: Makes sense. You mentioned explanations and how some things are not explanations. I was reading the book and I saw that, okay that's a definition, I'll remember that. This is a description, and those are both not explanations. I better keep this straight so when I see Lee next time I want to make sure I don't use the wrong terminology.
Lee: Oh, I think they are much softer than that. I think I follow that section up to say that doesn't mean that these things can't be explanations; it's just that alone they're not. But anyway.
Patrick: Right, I got it. I think I remember you saying that. I knew you before all this explanation stuff and I love that fact. I remember Common Craft, the community consultancy and you were an online community manager in the healthcare industry from 1998 to 2003 according to your LinkedIn profile. I site my source because if I'm wrong it's your LinkedIn profile that's wrong, it's not me.
Lee: I would say that that is my tenure at that company and for the last three years was when I was the online community manager.
Patrick: Got it. Okay, so what I'm leading into here is that industry did exist back before 2005. You're an example I can point to that and always continue to say that to people that this isn't in the last couple years.
Lee: It's true.
Patrick: Then of course you did some community consulting. I was curious to ask you how important or unimportant has your community building background been in fostering Common Craft to a wider audience?
Lee: You know that's a really good question. One of the first things online or in my professional life that I was really truly passionate about was the idea of online communities. That you could solve a lot of problems by being able to communicate with a group of people that are also passionate about what you do. Businesses could engage customers in all these new ways and I still believe that that's amazingly powerful and we've seen huge change out of that.
But it's a bit ironic that when we looked at Common Craft and Common Craft's potential to do that, we saw it through the lens of what we can do as a two-person company. What's going to drive our business? Everything came down to a choice at that time, are we going to get more bang for our buck by doing this or by making videos? Because it's a constraint, you've got to make choices. We saw the potential to use social media to increase the awareness of our brand, to always be out there and talk to people about what's happening and offer ways to communicate to people about Common Craft, but not necessarily have a goal of creating an online community around Common Craft or around the videos.
I think we saw the company having different goals. I'm sure you would agree that that's what community success depends on, does it solve the goal you're trying to solve? And our goal was not to necessarily have a big community of people, but to be a successful video explanation company. Being a small company meant that we had to think about that differently.
Patrick: Mainly you want to connect with the right people, connect with the people who will like what you're doing. It's not about everyone; it's about your focused audience.
Patrick: I just got an idea as I was sitting here because I recently wrote something about how people can use videos to explain features of the community and they could just use your artwork. That would be helpful, they should pay for that.
Lee: Sure.
Patrick: So a little bit about book writing. Common Craft, as you've explained here, is a very independent company. Now you write a book, and you go with a major publisher. Why?
Lee: Good question. We looked at that really closely. One thing that I think was part of that decision was a couple of years before we wrote the book Wiley contacted me expressing interest. I wasn't really in that frame of mind at the time, but I saved the information and thought more about it later. Two years after that I wrote back to the same person who was actually the editor of my book, Lauren at Wiley, and said hey I'm interested, are you guys still interested?
She said yes, I present on Tuesday. Give me a proposal and I'll talk to people about it. So I wrote to her and we started going down that path or at least considering that path and I think that for my first book I put a priority on working with a major publisher because of a couple of things. For one, I wanted to know the process; I wanted to know what does it take to work with a publisher. And I wanted to have that be a part of my professional life that I worked with a major publisher on a book, I was a published author.
Self publishing obviously has benefits too, but that's a big differentiator in my mind is that I made it over that bar. The bar of convincing a publisher to actually accept the book. So far I think it's great. They've offered us a number of opportunities that I don't think would have been possible otherwise. But I always keep the possibility open of going and doing my own thing having done this.
Patrick: Yeah I felt the same way when I was coming out with my book and just wanting to be with a publisher that was as big as possible or at least in the best situation possible. For the same reason, it's a stamp of legitimacy, right? I have nothing against self publishing, we just self-
published a book this year that was sponsored by someone, but with the first book, it's almost like, and it sounds condescending, but if I wanted to I could self-publish a book with the letter K.
Lee: That's true.
Patrick: If I wanted to I could just publish a book of the letter K and call it the K Book, have it out and available tomorrow. That sounds really condescending, but my point is that I can put anything I want out there. It's like I have a blog, okay, whoopdie-doo. What is that worth? There's tons of great self-published books, but for you to have the stamp of approval that a publisher said hey, we're going to put 50 grand in money, time, staff effort, 100 grand, whatever it is. Because it takes a lot of staff hours to put a book together.
I think my publisher's process is probably shorter now, they have downsized a little bit, but when I had my book I had four rounds of editors, a copy editor, an associate editor, somebody who reconfigured the organization of the book, the executive editor. There's all these people, and they're all spending time on the book, and they all have to be paid. Then there's sales people, there's designers, and people I haven't even heard of probably. Then my advance and everything else that goes into it. That is something worth having that stamp of approval that says hey, I was good enough for them to say we're going to get behind your project.
Lee: Yeah, definitely. It's slightly analogous to venture funding for a startup. The moment you get even half a million dollars or millions of dollars, that is validation. Somebody believed in that idea. That's something that helps.
Patrick: Right, definitely. And of course the access. That's the same thing I say, when I talk to different authors, that's the same thing I say, the same thing you basically said, same thing they say is it comes down to two things, the second thing is access to the bookstores because there's still that gatekeeper there. That's kind of the one main middle man thing that major publishers have is my book was in every Barnes & Noble in the country. Not everyone can say that. There is value there that it was in bookstores.
In the future I can go on and do whatever I want, but I'll always have that.
Lee: Yes, that's right.
Patrick: Now you're intellectual property is featured heavily in the book, your drawings. Not just your writing. My book was just my writing in there; you have your writing plus your artwork. How did that factor into your negotiations?
Lee: It's a good question. Honestly, at the point that we were signing contracts and everything for the book, it was not fleshed out what the book would actually contain. I think that Wiley has actually been great to work with in terms of that. From their perspective in terms of how I use the intellectual property and that sort of thing, they just want to make sure that I'm not offering any competition to book sales. As long as I'm not impacting the potential to sell books by giving things away somehow, then it's really not a big deal.
I was worried about that early on because there's this thing called the explanation scale. In the book and it's a really simple idea it's not something that a big consulting company would send out armies of lawyers to try to protect.
Patrick: You haven't filed a patent yet is what you're saying you haven't filed for the patent just yet.
Lee: Yeah, that's right. I was worried about this is in the book, does it mean I can't use it on my website or I can't use it in some other way? My editor just said no, don't worry about that, that's your copyright. As long as it's not competing with book sales you can use your stuff, those are your ideas.
Patrick: Right.
Lee: So that made me feel better about that. I feel free right now, maybe I'll hear something from them later, but right now I don't feel restricted at all. I feel like that artwork that's in the book is something that I can use in a number of ways. Not to mention that those images are black and white, and when you color it, it becomes a different thing.
Patrick: Right, okay. I was just curious about that. So let's talk about explanation a little more, and one of the things I wanted to ask you. Throughout time, who are your favorite explainers?
Lee: Throughout time? Wow.
Patrick: Throughout time. Like if you could hop in a time machine and see a few different people explain something, and it could be people who are living, who are the people that you look to and say those people, they could explain something.
Lee: Totally. I haven't always looked at the world that way of course. Just in the last few years has it been a really big focus in terms of who do I think are the best. But I can talk some about what I see today. One of my favorite people, someone I love when I see him on TV is Neil deGrasse Tyson. If listeners don't know, he's the director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City, he's an astrophysicist, and now a media figure.
But he's one of these incredibly smart, accomplished people who is able to take something like astrophysics and make it graspable for everybody. Not only that, make people excited about it and interested in it. I say that he's an ambassador to his profession because he's able to explain things the way he does. I don't think he would necessarily say that it's an explanation skill that he has, but that's how I put it.
I think that connects to another person named Richard Feynman who is actually known as the great explainer. He was also a physicist who is one of the most well-known physicists in the world partially because of his ability to take this really hairy physics problem and look at it in the way that a child would. To come at it from a direction nobody else is thinking about and explain it in a way that is not only accurate but makes it fundamentally easy to understand.
I love to see these people who are so smart, because that's really the problem with explanation. We all have the curse of knowledge. We know so much that we lose the ability to understand what that idea looks like to someone else. Getting over that is really hard. When you see somebody who's like a PhD-level physicist, they have the curse of knowledge really badly. When they're able to overcome that and invite people to care about what they're doing it's a really special thing.
Just another quick example. I listen to a lot of podcasts and I think podcasts are a great format. Radio can be a great format for explanations. Couple of examples. Planet Money by NPR's Alex Blumberg, those guys have been an excellent example of taking things like global finance and explaining it in a way that everyday people can understand.
Another one is Radio Lab. The Radio Lab podcasts is one of my favorites, and they take all sorts of different subjects and boil them down and tell stories and do all these wonderful media experiences with sound and voice that create explanations that are really remarkable.
That's a big factor for me. It's not enough just to make something understandable, the real opportunity is to make it remarkable. That happens through a combination of explanation and media.
Patrick: Well put. I like the way you mentioned the curse of knowledge and how important it is to be able to explain. Because in managing communities, one of the things that inevitably happens is you have to block someone or ban someone who knows things. Who actually has some intelligence and has some knowledge but their problem is that they can't communicate it without being disrespectful or just can't communicate it. They're not helpful.
The thing that we try to celebrate on my communities and I know other people do too, is you don't try to celebrate knowledge, but knowledge in someone who can actually offer the people in a way that adds value.
Patrick: I think that's what it's all about. We've all heard about the genius who's just a jerk, right? Who can't share his knowledge. That person is a poor explainer.
Lee: Something I would say about that is that especially in the academic world there is a real benefit, and it is something that is encouraged to look smart. You want to look smart. There's incentives around that. But I think that the world that we live in now, it's more beneficial for people who figure out a way to not only look smart but at the same time help others feel smart. That's what I really thing explanations do, is to change that equation a little bit from looking inwardly and saying how can I look smart? To looking outwardly and saying how can I accomplish my goals and be successful by helping others feel smart? I think that's how explanation fits in.
Patrick: Very good. I was curious to find out how you think this might extend to the field of entertainment. Specifically, are there any music artists or directors or comedians that you're a fan of because of how they explain? How far is this explanation thing taken over your life, Lee? The field of entertainment, do you look at that as a field that really benefits from good explanations?
Lee: That's an interesting question. One point that I thought of when you said that is how much has explanation become a part of my life, one of the things that I think is kind of funny is since thinking about writing the book, literally, and I mean that literally, every time someone says the word explanation or explain, my mind starts to figure out okay, what are they talking about? Let's watch. He says he's going to explain it, let's see what's there. It's kind of an interesting perspective for that word to be a key word that all of a sudden means this thing in my life.
Let's see, in terms of entertainment, I don't know that I have much to say about entertainers using explanations, but there are a couple of examples of music and media being used to make explanations remarkable. There's a guy named David Holmes who graduated from NYU, he was a part of J. Rosen's Studio 2.0 project that focused on explanation in journalism. He started a company called Explainer Music, which is now partnered with Pando Daily and his company makes these explanations in the form of raps and songs and things like that that make them remarkable. They make them something that people want to watch and want to listen to.
One of the ones that made them well-known was the song that was an explanation of fracking, the natural gas process.
Patrick: I'm glad you elaborated on that.
Lee: Another one is called EconStories, I believe it's EconStories.tv that did these awesome really-well produced raps that are about basic economics. Like Hayek versus Keynes in terms of supply-side or demand-side economics, but it's done in the form of a rap. It really makes it clear, it's a very engaging, remarkable thing. I love to see how music and media can be used not just to make something easy to understand, but actually get people engaged. That's a key thing I think.
Patrick: Yeah. It's part of everything really. I hate to put you on the spot and say entertainment, but explanation's part of everything. If you can't explain well, you could get fired. If you can't explain well, you can get divorced. I don't want to dramatize this too much, but if you can't communicate and you can't explain your actions, explain why something happened, then life will pass you by to some extent if you're bad at it.
Lee: I really believe that. I think it's one of the fundamental ideas from the book that we explain every day. There's this thing that all of us are doing every day that we can actually get better, but very few of us have actually taken a step back and thought how do I explain something? What is my process for explaining something? I think that if people will take a step back and think about that a little bit they'll see opportunities to get a little bit better.
That's really all it takes is this realization that oh wow, I can actually do this better. This thing that I'm doing every day.
Patrick: One of the sections of the book that stood out to me was the one on context. I found myself drawn to it, especially the example of the public speaker, because I am a public speaker. You had the example of a speaker trying to cater to an audience of mixed experiences, which isn't that every audience? The way that you quantified it in this story, was it Andre? I'm trying to remember the person's name for some reason, I don't know why I want to.
Patrick: You said think of it like this. Two people aren't interested in what you have to say. Six are interested, but they're beginners, then two are experts. I battle with that sort of thing all the time. What is stressful to me about it and I think to other speakers is that I find that the people who complain the most and the loudest in my experience tend to be experts. Or perceived experts who complain that they didn't get anything out of the talk.
I haven't had it happen a lot, but I've had people say on Twitter well I don't know what I was here for I know all this stuff already. Or I actually had someone after a talk, and it actually went kind of well. I thought it went pretty well. Some people said they liked it, whatever. Came up to me afterwards right after you hop off stage–I could never do this to someone–
and said I don't know what I was supposed to get out of that. I thought to myself, my goodness, couldn't you have waited a little while? But I don't know if that's just my experience, but it's difficult to kind of cater a talk in the way you laid out. The way you put it there made me think about it and how I'm going to think about it in the future to try and organize it in a certain way.
But that is such a challenging thing, to try to give a presentation at most any conference that actually helps beginners. That's not the hard part to me, the hard part is doing both. Helping beginners, and then giving the experts something to stick around for that they say that was interesting or I learned that.
Lee: Yeah, definitely. It is a struggle, and I've struggled with that too. I hope that part of the book helps, but I realize that it doesn't necessarily fit every situation. The kind of big idea there is to think about it in terms of cost. Not real quantifiable costs necessarily but you could even say pain or whatever. They're like what?
Patrick: Agony.
Lee: What's going to cause the worst outcome. If you take that group you were talking about with two who are uninterested, six that could be interested and two that are experts, then you have to think about where does my explanation begin? Does it begin at a point that allows all the six interested people to possibly gain an interest? Or does it start at a point where you're not going to offend the experts by covering the basics?
The basic idea about that is that if you've ever learned something in class the second time, it may be a little bit annoying, but it really just validates what you know. It's not offensive to you. But what's offensive if you're one of those six people and the explanation from the very beginning leaves you out, that's a big cost to leave out eight people just because you want to look smart to the two.
That's kind of how I think about it. I think everybody wants to look smart, and that doesn't mean you can't start with the basics. Make sure if you just spend a few minutes giving people a way to take that initial first step to understanding and not forgetting that you're going to leave people if you focus too much on those experts.
Patrick: That makes sense. And maybe, just maybe, some of the experts should continue to attend the same conference talks over and over again expecting a different outcome. Just maybe.
Patrick: I wanted to ask you about what I think of as the infographic craze. Not that they're new, because as you pointed out in the book they're not. Infographics aren't brand new, but it just seems like they're a marketing trend. You see a lot of them are sponsored of course, or at least for the book I self-published that I put out this year was not my idea but we did it. I get pitched on infographics for my blog. I don't know if it's daily but it sure seems like it. People wanting me to share infographics, it's just kind of a crazy thing right now, it seems that people are all invested in this medium.
I expect that to wane over time and for people to move on to the next thing, but for infographics still to exist as they have or have for a long time. What is your reaction to seeing the constant wave of infographics that we're subjected too right now?
Lee: I don't have really strong feelings about it. There's something to it, but they see Common Craft as living in the same world as that. And visual thinking is another thing.
Patrick: Smack those people.
Lee: I think that we're writers. Our work, the videos specifically, rely on writing and voice over. That's a different thing than looking at a graphic that you can hand somebody physically and ask them to look at. Anyway, that's not what you're looking for. I think that infographics can be effective. There are lots of examples of both good and bad infographics. I think it goes back to this remarkability factor where people just aren't reading anymore.
They don't want to look at a thousand word article if they can look at something interesting. The growth of infographics comes from that. I think it's also being fueled by business where infographics is a form of content marketing that can help SEO. That's what's driving a lot of that industry right now is businesses who see it as a way to attract attention. I think it can and I don't think that there's anything wrong with that.
That's a good thing as long as it's well done and it's quality work and it has actual facts and is not misleading or that sort of thing. I'm not really that engaged in that world, probably not as much as people think I would be.
Patrick: I'm sorry for the terrible question. No, I totally get it. I agree, you're diplomatic like me. You can see both sides of the thing, I don't see them as good or bad either. As I was reading your book, one of the things that jumped out at me was, and I'm sure a lot of people feel this way but could use a better explanation is government. I just wonder what you think or what you might see, and I hate questions like this myself, but kind of the future of government and how important it is for the government to explain things to the people who they work for, more or less, or they are supposed to, to be able to explain what are very complex concepts, these bills, these acts that are hundreds of pages. That apparently some of the people who vote on them don't always read them.
Because they're just so dang long. It would seem to be an essential skill that there should be people in government who can explain. I don't think every office needs a chief explainer necessarily, but it would help to have someone on staff who was dedicated to disseminating information in a very clear and understandable way.
Is there anything coming? Have you seen anything like that? Has anybody in government contacted you and said Common Craft is great, we're doing this?
Is that a direction that you think government offices will go in?
Lee: I do. We have been contacted about that kind of thing. Government is a big organization that moves slowly. Just in the last couple of years we've seen the government make lots of moves in new media that weren't there in the past. I think they're learning. I see this from a couple of different perspectives. I would love to see government put a priority on creating these explanations, however they do it, in some remarkable way that actually gets people to see.
Not the campaign talking points, not the rhetoric, but the rationale behind how everything works. Like Medicare. If you went out to learn about Medicare, you would likely get caught up in the noise of like the doughnut hole or fraud or all these things. I think what's missing is giving people a way to understand something like Medicare in the context of what is the rationale behind Medicare? Why does the fact that Medicare exists make sense, or why did it make sense to the people that initially designed it?
By focusing not on the level of noise and details that you see on TV and focusing on these fundamental basic things, we empower voters to be informed and become higher information voters. We can't necessarily tell them believe this fact or not this fact kind of thing, we can equip them with a foundational level of understanding that let's them be informed and judge for themselves what is right and what is wrong and what's a fact and what's not.
That's where I see it happening with government. Playing a role of not contributing more noise, but focusing on these fundamental kind of ideas that empower people to be high-information voters.
Patrick: I think like you said the talking points, I think that's where a lot of communication about bills and acts comes down to. Talking points and marketing of those bills and acts. And that's unfortunate. SOFA and PIPA is a really good example for me because it was talked about online a lot, but the fact was that probably 50 percent of every tweet I saw about it said something wrong. Either in this camp or this camp, someone's wrong here.
I co-host a show dedicated to copyright and plagiarism. Not that I was super expert on it, but I knew enough and I had done my own research enough to the point to know that this person said this and it's just totally wrong. But this just got re-tweeted seven million times. I guess that's great, but it's tough, and I would like to see that happen. Maybe we need another Czar, the explanations Czar.
Lee: Yeah, that'd be great. Bill Clinton is known as the explainer-in-
chief, maybe they can take some his advice on it.
Patrick: This is the SitePoint Podcast, and a large section of our audience here on this podcast is programmers, developers, designers. Obviously those people have to explain things to clients, and sometimes they know what they are doing but they have a hard time explaining their work without coming across as confusing or worse, rude. A programmer has a client meeting tomorrow to explain the direction of the next version of a website. Now to put you on the spot, they have an evening to prepare. When they ask you for advise, what would you tell them?
Lee: That's a good question. Part of it is understanding this idea of the curse of knowledge, that everybody has it. Because of what you know, you find it hard to know what it feels like to hear the words that come out of your mouth basically. It's a normal part of communicating for that to happen. You have to adjust for that. What the curse of knowledge causes is for a communicator to make poor assumptions about what the audience already knows.
Basically that means that you assume too much. You assume that they see the connections that you see. You assume that they see the basic ideas that you see. If you really are focused on explanation, you see the potential to account for the bad assumptions. One of the ways you do that is by putting an emphasis on context in the beginning of what you're going to talk about. If you're going to talk about some detailed programming let's say, then the context means what is the world that those things live in?
Around that idea there is a bigger world. Ruby is a programming language and a programming language is something that allows software to be built, and we need software to do these things. These are sort of concentric worlds around the idea. What context does is give the audience a chance to evaluate what is he talking about. Why does this matter to me? Where is this headed? In my mind, doing that does something that I call in the book lowering the cost of understanding.
That's the big idea, that when a programmer say is about to walk into a client meeting those clients are going to be evaluating what that person says and thinking am I capable of understanding this person? If the cost of understanding looks too high, especially from the beginning, they'll tune out and the explanation will fail. That's what happens if you don't build context. But if you build context, make some statements in the beginning that frame the idea, come to agreement.
We can all agree this is the problem or we can all agree that this is the state of affairs. It takes that cost of understanding and spreads it across multiple ideas to make it like stepping stones to getting to that big idea. Context is the first step, then consider telling a story which doesn't have to be this big, developed thing, but talk about someone who is impacted or affected someway by this idea and how it made them feel. That gives the audience the ability to say I want to feel that way, or I want my customers or employees to feel that way.
That again is one of those stepping stones that makes people feel like they grasp it, they understand, that they feel confident about the idea. Then there's other parts of that, using analogies and connections, that sort of thing. It happens up front, it's about that initial direction.
One last thing I would say is that explanations are like movie scripts or songs. They start off written. If you write it out, and write about the major talking points, you can see how it flows.
For most of us explanations happen off the top of our heads, we don't ever have a plan. But if we can define something and say you know what? People are not understanding compiling, I don't know programming that well, but how compiling works, then I'm going to sit down and write out how to explain that. That way I can walk into a meeting with talking points that make that a priority.
Patrick: Excellent. Really that inability to explain is how a lot of client relationships break down. That is if you can't adequately explain yourself, why you have made the decisions that you've made and why they work without coming across as condescending, I think this book will be very helpful for that. It's the Art of Explanation, available wherever books are sold, and for more info check out artofexplanation.com.
That brings us to the end of this show. Lee, thanks for coming on.
Lee: Great to be here Patrick, thank you.
Patrick: Where can people find you online?
Lee: At commoncraft.com, I'm also @LeeLeFever, my name at Twitter. Also you can follow Common Craft on Twitter @commoncraft.
Patrick: And I am Patrick O'Keefe of the iFroggy Network. I blog at ManagingCommunities.com, on Twitter @iFroggy. You can follow SitePoint
@sitepointdotcom, that's sitepointdotcom. Visit us at sitepoint.com/podcast, leave comments on this show and subscribe to receive every show automatically. E-mail podcast@sitepoint.com with your questions for us, we'd love to read them out on the show and give you our advice. The SitePoint Podcast is produced by Karn Broad. Thank you for listening, and we'll see you next time.
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The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has another plant in its crosshairs.
On August 31, The DEA announced a temporary federal ban on kratom, a Southeast Asian plant used to alleviate pain and stress and, sometimes, as a stimulant.
Usually crushed and mixed into water, or taken as a pill, kratom has gained popularity in recent years as an alternative painkiller to opioids.
The agency said they were planning on listing kratom's active ingredients on Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act.
Schedule 1 substances are those that have both a high potential for abuse, and no currently accepted medical use in the US.
The DEA is acting quickly to list kratom's active chemicals on Schedule 1 to avoid "imminent hazard to the public safety," the DEA wrote on the Federal Register.
This announcement, however, has made some activist groups livid.
"We are now facing our darkest hour," The American Kratom Association, a non-profit founded in 2014, wrote on its website, in a post titled: "You could be a criminal this time next month!"
"Countless people depend on this safe and effective herbal remedy related to coffee that was sacred to the Buddhists, who have used it safely for thousands of years. Many of you depend on this healing leaf for your general well-being, pain and suffering, depression, anxiety, PTSD, opioid dependency and more."
More than 120,000 people have signed a petition asking the White House to keep kratom off of Schedule 1.
One of the main issues with kratom is that there isn't much research on the plant's effectiveness or safety. If the DEA lists kratom as a Schedule 1 substance, that isn't likely to change.
As has been the case for marijuana since it was listed as Schedule 1 decades ago, kratom would be difficult to study if classified as Schedule 1.
John Hudak, a drug policy expert at The Brookings Institution, told The Washington Post on Thursday that listing kratom on Schedule 1 would make it difficult for scientists to obtain samples of the plant, which would limit the research necessary to accurately determine whether kratom has medicinal value.
Jag Davies, the communications director for the Drug Policy Alliance, reflected Hudak's concerns in a story for the Huffington Post on Wednesday.
"Many people struggling with opioid addiction have turned to kratom to help them cut back or quit, but now all promising scientific studies on kratom's role in opioid treatment could be immediately shut down," Davies wrote.


text:
Kisiizi Power Station is a  hydroelectric power station in Uganda.

Location
The power station is located at the site of Kisiizi Waterfall, in the town of Kisiizi, Rukungiri District, in Western Uganda. This location is approximately , by road, south of Rukungiri, where the district headquarters are located. Kisiizi is located approximately , by road, north of Kabale, the largest city in the sub-region.

Overview
Kisiizi Power Station is the property of Kisiizi Power Company Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Kisiizi Hospital, a private, missionary hospital administered by the Church of Uganda, and is supported by an NGO based in the United Kingdom, known as Friends of Kisiizi. The current power station with capacity of 294 kW (0.3MW) was commissioned in 2008. It replaced an older power plant with a maximum capacity of only 60 kW (0.06MW). The power from the station is used by the hospital and its affiliated institutions. The surplus is sold to the greater Kisiizi community, including businesses and private homes.

See also

List of power stations in Uganda
List of hydropower stations in Africa

References

External links
Location of Kisiizi at Google Maps
http://www.kisiizihospital.org.ug/?page_id=89
http://www.kisiizihospital.org.ug/

Energy infrastructure completed in 2008
Hydroelectric power stations in Uganda
Rukungiri District


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I've long been interested in what makes a communicative organization (or an organization communicative, for that matter). Technology, people and processes play a large role to be sure. In looking back over my years as a corporate communicator, it dawned on me that I was unconsciously striving to reach an ideal where communications was not the responsibility of the department, but the responsibility of each employee and championed by senior leaders.
The term communicative organizations is not in wide use (yet) and it's most heavily referenced in the work of the Global Alliance and was first defined in the Stockholm Accords that were the result of the 2010 World Public Relations Forum.
A communicative organization recognizes that even the most empowered public relations director cannot realistically hope to govern more than 10% of its communicative behaviours.
a 'contextual' role which implies the constant delivery of communicative skills, competencies and tools to the components of its value networks so that they improve their relationships amongst each other and with the other value networks.
My goal with future posts on this subject will not be to add more scholarly discourse, but to try and discover practical examples and approaches that communicators can use to build and support their own communicative organizations.


Defence and security company Saab continues their commitment in academic partnership and professional development with Indonesia and is awarding the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) and the Indonesian Defence Industry with 20 scholarships in Technology Forecasting and Long-term Defence Planning at the prestigious Swedish Defence University. An opening ceremony and a letter of agreement signing will be hosted by TNI in their HQ in Cilangkap, Jakarta on Wednesday 29 March, 2017.
As a part of the ongoing effort of building bridges of knowledge between Sweden and Indonesia, Saab is continuing to fullfill a comittment of knowledge transfer by awarding 20 scholarships for the executive course on master level in Technology Forecasting and Long-term Defence Planning. The course is arranged by the Swedish Defence University together with Saab. This is part of the 50 scholarships program that Saab has prepared for Indonesia.
"We are most proud to present our scholarship to 20 professionals from the Indonesian Armed Forces, Ministry of Defence and the local defence industry alike. We have been practicing academic and industrial cooperation with governments and industry all over the world. This is a way for us to showcase our commitment in doing transfer of technology and sharing our knowledge to Indonesia especially in the defence and security domain.
This executive course ends in August in Indonesia with a closing ceremony hosted by the Indonesian Armed Forces.